Tarantino thinks John Ford was an unabashed racist, noting that the director got his start as one of the hooded Klansmen in Birth of a Nation. Q goes onto bash Ford for the wholesale slaughter of Indians in his movies.
Those "faceless Indians he killed like zombies," were actually Native Americans. John Ford was one of the first directors to hire Native Americans, largely as extras, and filmed The Searchers entirely on location in the Navajo Nation in 1956. He not only paid for their services but had great respect for the Navajo. Ford made Monument Valley famous. I think part of it goes back to WWII in which the Navajo were used as code talkers. Ford himself served in WWII, unlike his anti-hero in the movie, John Wayne. You can read more about this in Glenn Frankel's book on the making of this classic movie.
John Wayne's character in The Searchers is not much different than the anti-heroes Tarantino celebrates in his movies. Ethan Edwards is an unrepentant racist similar to Calvin Candie in Django. He is a former Confederate soldier, begrudgingly in the employ of the Texas Rangers, who finds his brother's home burnt out by Comanche, with everyone dead except the teenage daughter abducted by the notorious Scar. The story is somewhat based on a true story, as Frankel noted in his book, but Ford attempts to mine the deeply scarred psyche of Ethan, who has little tolerance for anyone, especially Indians. In his mind the only good Indian is a dead Indian.
What makes this film standout is that Ford doesn't resort to the same old Hollywood claptrap, something he had been previously guilty of himself. He complicates things rather quickly when Martin, who joins Ethan on the manhunt, accidentally buys a Comanche wife and they are forced to bring her along with them. Unlike Ethan, Martin is quite sensitive and tries to protect her the best he can. In the end, she provides valuable interpretation when they finally confront the Comanche themselves. A little bit like Pocahontas here.
It's not to say the film is without flaws, but when you consider the time it was made in, Ford was clearly ahead of the curve. It wouldn't be until the 1960s that the Vietnam War would have a great impact on the way we viewed Westerns. We began to see much more complicated stories like those of Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone, which I imagine Quentin loves. However, without Ford having turned a new page, it is doubtful the film industry would have been as open as it was to new interpretations in the 1960s.
Frankel also noted that Ford helped the Navajo when they were suffering from a severe drought and had little access to food and water. Ford had food and water air lifted to the remote parts of the reservation. Something the tribal leaders never forgot. You will find all sorts of references to John Ford throughout the Navajo Nation to this day.
It is unfortunate that Tarantino knows so little about John Ford. As Blauvelt wrote, "there is more humanity in any one of Ford's movies than in the entirety of Tarantino's nine-picture filmography."
One can only guess that Tarantino likes to generate controversy in his effort to project himself as a Hollywood maverick. Yet, this is a guy who cozied up to Harvey Weinstein through much of his career. It was only after the proverbial shit hit the fan that Quentin showed any sense of remorse for having looked the other way, even when his former girlfriend Mira Sorvino told him of the sexual harassment she personally had to endure.
Turns out he wasn't much of a maverick either. Weinstein would often exercise his editorial control over his early films, much to young Quentin's chagrin. Harvey was notorious for his cuts but Quentin likes to talk about the one time he got his way to Joe Rogan.
Needless to say, Tarantino couldn't even hold John Ford's jock strap. Despite Quentin's pension for making highly watchable movies, there is little if any substance to be found in them. Tarantino revels in mayhem and violence, having grown up on exploitation movies in the 1970s. Recently, he has resorted to historical backdrops as a way to "authenticate" his violence and excessive use of racist language, which was on full display in Django and The Hateful Eight. Of course, Quentin justifies his brutal films by having the white guy suffer most in the end.
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